It’s Ed Ballroom! Ex-Chancellor confirmed in Strictly line-up

Former shadow chancellor and Morley MP Ed Balls will compete in this year’s Strictly Come Dancing, it was revealed today.

The ex-politician is the first name to be officially revealed for the hit ballroom dancing show.

He told Chris Evans on his Radio 2 breakfast show that he was “scared to death”.

Mr Balls, 49, lost his Morley and Outwood seat in May last year in one of the greatest casualties of the 2015 election.

He said appearing on the BBC1 show was a “dream come true” but admitted he thought that life in politics was “much easier than this is going to be”.

Mr Balls said his wife, Yvette Cooper, the Labour MP for Pontefract and Castleford, supported his decision to join the show.

And he said he just hoped that he would get through the first two weeks.

He said: “Making a speech in Parliament seems a piece of cake compared to this, but hopefully I can stick around for a couple of weeks, and have a lot of fun in the process.

“Strictly is a firm favourite in our living room, and it feels like a dream to be going on myself, especially for Len’s (Goodman) last series. I’m just hoping it doesn’t turn into a nightmare too quickly!”